Cory's Ye Olde Blogge

Friday, December 31, 2010

To cap off 2010 I wanted to do it in style, so like I brought in the year with a week long giveaway, at the end of the year I cleaned out my studio and had a fire sale! It came about because I was organizing and cleaning out my office for the first time in months, and months. After a while I began separating the drawings I was coming across into "keep" and "burn" piles.Hence, fire sale! I decided to make these available on my shop for pretty good deals.The evening I photographed and posted everything, after wards I thought, oh geez, I just wasted my time. I woke up the next morning to 1/3 of the fire sale having sold! I was pretty excited. In the end I think 3/4ths of the collection sold. I'm so pleased with the way it worked.Like I said, most every is gone now though there are still a few pieces left in thefire sale collection.Here's some pictures of stuff before the rush,And a few of my favorites :Thank you for making the fire sale a success!...And of course,This is other side of the "fire sale" -- the part where I burned stuff that didn't make the cut! You can't have a fire sale with out the threat of real fire, right?Behold, anAliceinvitation gets the burn.I had set up my new fire bowl out back in front of the garage. That's me with the staff there. I used it to incessantly poke the fire into puffing ash into my friends' faces.

Above, watching the massive embers land on top of my garage.

Again, thanks so much for making myfire salegreat -- it really turned into a success. I wasn't sure at first if I should even take the time to put it together but now I can see it becoming a year end staple.

2010 has been quite a year for me and I've enjoyed it immensely, I hope it's been good for you as well.

I'll break these three year end posts into pre-CC, Comic-Con, and post-CC. If that makes sense. It falls right in the middle of the year and I spent so much time working up towards it that it makes a natural break. Sort of, it'll conveniently make three posts at least.

With both my professional work and my personal work I feel like I was able to make a few strides that passed previous years. Here are some highlights I wanted to revisit, in pretty much chronological order.

I also did a Flipnote for one of the bit and runs. I got a DSi XL for my birthday (I've worn my old DS into the ground) and Flipnote was the thing I was most looking forward to playing with.

Though truthfully I loved each one from Volume Two. See,while I had planned all of the comics ahead of time with this set some of my taste had changed, certainly originally planned punchlines didn't strike me the same and so I found myself on several occasions either rewriting a joke or making up a completely new one. Two comics in particular came at a rough time when I was trying to finish the work for my Alice show and another during my Fraggle Rock deadline. I'm happy to say I met all of my commitments (bit and run included) and obliterated them to the best of my powers.

I got a lot from "bit and run" and I hope they were fun for you as well. More than the fun they brought me, the final comic of Volume Two was cathartic, for me at least. As you might remember I lost my cat Kitty on August 25th to a pack of dogs. Four dogs ran into our yard, dragged her off the porch, and killed her in the road. That's where I found her. I loved that cat. She was the best. Sweet and kind. I know animals die, yes, and it's sad when they're old and die but to loose one like this, so violently made me at once heartbroken and furious. I think of her everyday. So how on earth does this relate to "bit and run" you might ask? With my final comic I wanted to tell a different story. This one wasn't a joke. And for me, a large part of the comic is a retelling of what happened the night that I lost Kitty except there was someone there to save her because I couldn't do it. It might sound silly and it might sound trite but I don't care. That is what is at the heart of this little comic. People might not have known the entire reason behind it but they responded to it all the same.

"bit and run" has been a journey for me, over this past year with these two volumes (Volume One and Volume Two) of comics. It's been a release, an exercise in color and shapes and humor. I've found what I was looking for with bit and run. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time with these comics and I'm pleased to think that they might have give you a smile as well.

* * *

September also gave us Indie Craft Parade, my wife's best project. I'll submit my original assessment of the event still holds true,

ICPwent off like a rocket, like ten thousand roman candles lit with a flamethrower.

Erin and Libby's pet project to create a craft fair for Greenville was a howling success. As I understand it the numbers run something like this -- 4000 attendees over the two days, almost 80 artists/vendors (those 80 being selected from the over 300 applicants) -- most people had to wait in line at least 30 minutes just to get in (we hit fire code almost immediately and they had to stagger people coming in and going out.)

As the title of this local online magazine (with 70-some photos, check them out!) read

I'm just so proud of Erin for making it happen. I saw her pour countless hours upon hours and emails and phone calls and meetings into this and to see it light up like this was so great.

* * *

Alice, Alice, Alice. My Alice project was one that I had planned almost exactly a year previously. I had begun my roughs and thumbnails in the Fall of 2009 but due to a huge project I was unable to complete it.

As I mentioned in 2010 highlights pt.2, I worked most of the summer of 2010 on Alice, first building the book. October 1 brought the first show. I say first because my Alice show traveled around Greenville.

Because I usually can't help but make more work for myself, I decided the week before the show opened that I wanted to do a bunch of new, original Alice inspired drawings and watercolors.

I spent a furious couple days before the show painting into the very late/early hours.

Here is what resulted.

* Note, the scans of the paintings (the second picture of the two) are the truer representation of the colors. The lights of the gallery and the glare of the big windows on the glass washed out the pictures somewhat.

Pretty much right after Alice, we hopped on a plane and flew to the Old World. We visited London, Sweden, Switzerland, and Paris. We spent two weeks traveling and visiting. Other than getting to hang out with my buddy Seb and his family in Paris,

my other highlights include getting to meet two of my most awesome clients in London,

Another great thing I was able to be involved with this past year was the charity art auction, Art Block for Ghana.

* * *

Hey, what do you get when I get to draw Muppets for the Jim Henson company? I don't know either but I was real happy to do it. I was asked to illustrate one of the new Fraggle Rock comics back in the summer. It was a dream job to say the least and I'll be posting more about it the coming days when the comic is released.

* * *

To cap off 2010 I wanted to do it in style, so like I brought in the year with a week long giveaway, at the end of the year I cleaned out my studio and had a fire sale! It came about because I was organizing and cleaning out my office for the first time in months, and months. After a while I began separating the drawings I was coming across into "keep" and "burn" piles.

Hence, fire sale! I decided to make these available on my shop for pretty good deals.

The evening I photographed and posted everything, after wards I thought, oh geez, I just wasted my time. I woke up the next morning to 1/3 of the fire sale having sold! I was pretty excited. In the end I think 3/4ths of the collection sold. I'm so pleased with the way it worked.

Like I said, most every is gone now though there are still a few pieces left in the fire sale collection.

Here's some pictures of stuff before the rush,

And a few of my favorites :

Thank you for making the fire sale a success!

...

And of course,

This is other side of the "fire sale" -- the part where I burned stuff that didn't make the cut! You can't have a fire sale with out the threat of real fire, right?

I had set up my new fire bowl out back in front of the garage. That's me with the staff there. I used it to incessantly poke the fire into puffing ash into my friends' faces.

Above, watching the massive embers land on top of my garage.

Again, thanks so much for making my fire sale great -- it really turned into a success. I wasn't sure at first if I should even take the time to put it together but now I can see it becoming a year end staple.

* * *

The end of the year marked the completion of our largest client animation project to date, The Last Flight of Petr Ginz. I'll be posting more about this in the coming weeks as the premiere draws closer. Needless to say this was a difficult project for several reasons but I believe we created something especially good with this one.